Thursday, August 9, 2012

I've been so distracted by pies and tarts recently, that after my wild success with pickled beets I nearly forgot about my goal to make more pickles this summer, for shame! Luckily, I ran into a giant crate of Kirby cucumbers the other day to remind me to get back to brining. I chose a classic dilly recipe full of ingredients I always have on hand (except the dill seeds, which were easy to find) for my cukes which was perfect for a novice pickler like me. From start to finish, this recipe took less than 30 minutes (plus the curing time) and they are perfectly garlicy and spicy with a nice vinegary bite, the only problem is that I drastically underestimated how many pickles my household was capable of eating in a week. I guess it's back to the stove for me...

I'm pretty excited to pick up some more cucumbers to make another batch of these guys and now that I am well on my way to becoming a pickle pro, I think I'll whip up batch of bread and butter pickles to tuck into my sandwiches. I might even have to find a crinkle cutter for those classic pickle-chip ridges.

1. Prepare and sterilize four pint jars, preferably regular mouth. Place the lids in a small saucepan, cover with water and simmer over very low heat.
2. Combine the vinegar, 2 cups water and the pickling salt in a medium pot and bring to a boil.
3. While the brine is boiling, add 2 garlic cloves, 1/4t red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon dill seed, and 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns to each sterilized jar. Trim the blossom ends from the cucumbers, cut them lengthwise into spears and pack them tightly into the jars. Alternately, you can pickle the cucumbers whole.
4. Carefully pour the hot brine over the cucumbers in each jar, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Gently tap the jars on a kitchen towel to release any air bubbles, then use a wooden chopstick to dislodge any remaining air bubbles in each jar. Check the headspace again and add more brine if necessary.
5. Wipe the rims, and apply the lids and rings to the jars. Process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes, then let the pickles cure for at least 1 week before eating.

This book was sent to me by the publisher. All opinions expressed are my own.

18 comments:

Hooray for pickles! I need to make some more myself--I have several jars of big chunk pickles, but no spears,a nd how can you have a sandwich without a pickle spear? :) I want to try those pickled beets too!

I'm all over pickles. A friend made me a jar of zucchini pickles a couple of weeks ago, and I've been dying to make my own (with both zucchini and cucumber). But.. canning terrifies me. I suppose it's time to get over my fear and just. do. it.

Beautiful photos, by the way. I especially love the bird's eye view of the jars.

I made the last post...also, and I just realized I skipped this step.Process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes, then let the pickles cure for at least 1 week before eating. Tell me I didn't screw these up.

Hi Angela- If you did not water bath process your pickles they are not shelf stable and may contain harmful bacteria. If they have been sitting out on your counter for over a week, you should throw the contents of the jars away (better safe than sorry). You can reuse the jars (not the lids), just wash and sterilize them before using.